OBJECTIVE To determine whether moderate alcohol exposure during pregnancy constitutes a danger to the offspring and whether prenatal stress exacerbates any negative effects on offspring behavior and physiology. RESULTS Developmental disabilities represents an enormous problem for our society costing the national economy billions of dollars per year. While there are many children with developmental disabilities that have known genetic and metabolic abnormalities, a large percent of such children have unknown etiologies. Prenatal alcohol exposure may be one of the factors contributing to the etiology of developmental disabilities, either alone or in conjunction with stress. Our data have indicated that offspring of prenatal alcohol-exposed females show attentional and neuromotor impairments during early life in comparison to control infants. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Studies are currently underway to determine (1) whether a sensitive period exists for the effect; (2) whether effects persist into adolescence, (3) whether the effects are exacerbated by prenatal stress, and (4) whether alterations in dopaminergic function subserve the behavioral impairments observed in fetal alcohol-exposed monkeys. KEY WORDS prenatal stress, neonatal, neurobehavior, cognitive development, social behavior, sensitive period, critical period, developmental disabilities, endocrine responses, neuromotor, memory and learning, WGTA testing, PET, MRI, neuroimaging, dopaminergic FUNDING NIAAA AA10079 Total costs plus indirect costs for this year = $172,500 PUBLICATIONS Roughton, E.C., M.L. Schneider, L. Bromley, and C.L. Coe. 1998. Maternal endocrine activation during pregnancy alters neurobehavioral state in primate infants, American Occupational Therapy Journal, 52, 90-98 Schneider, M.L., A.S. Clarke, G.W. Kraemer, E.C. Roughton, G.R. Lubach, S. Rimm-Kaufman, D. Schmidt, and M. Ebert. 1998. Prenatal stress alters brain biogenic amine levels in primates, Development and Psychopathology. 10:427-440.